Year 3 - Holly 2024 - 2025

Welcome to Holly Class! 

My name is Mrs Lavelle and I am the Creative Arts lead.

I particularly enjoy seeing children developing an enjoyment for their learning and becoming confident in all areas of their learning.

I have a passion for music and art and in my spare time I enjoy running and cheerleading.

Summer term 2025 - Emporers and Empires

In this project, your child will learn about the history and structure of ancient Rome and the Roman Empire, including a detailed exploration of the Romanisation of Britain.The children will be able to use and plot dates on a timeline, using their knowledge of chronological order. From this we will ask questions to help the children explore and understand the timeline, such as ‘When did Julius Caesar invade Britain? When did the Romans conquer Britain? What happened in AD 410?’

Please see our Curriculum Newsletter below for more information on the other topics that we will teaching over the course of this term.

World Book Day 2025

In Holly class we have enjoyed taking part in World Book Day, the chidren (and teachers) came to school dressed as their favourite book characters. There were plenty of characters from Harry Potter, fantasy characters, sports, superhero and Roald Dahl characters were also a firm favourite with Matilda, Sophie and Miss Honey call joinging the class! As you can see, the costumes were amazing!

Spring term 2025 - Rocks, Relics and Rumbles

In the Rocks, Relics and Rumbles project, your child will learn about the different layers of the Earth, including plate tectonics and their potential effects on the Earth's surface. They will investigate different types of rock to learn about their uses and properties. They will also investigate soil and fossils, including learning about the work of Mary Anning. They will have the opportunity to use maps to learn about the lines of latitude and longitude and a compass to learn about the cardinal and intercardinal points. They will also learn about volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis and the long and short-term consequences that these can have.

Please see our Curriculum Newsletter below for more information on the other topics that we will teaching over the course of this term.

Autumn term 2024 - Through the Ages:

In the Through the Ages project, your child will learn about three different periods of British prehistory: the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. They will discover terminology relating to time and sequence dates to make a timeline. They explore the changes to people, homes and lifestyle throughout the different periods and investigate examples of prehistoric settlements, monuments, burials and artefacts in detail. They will also study how technology improved over time, including how the discovery of different metals changed the way that people lived.

Please see our Curriculum Newsletter below for more information on the other topics that we will teaching over the course of this term.

Class information:

Our PE days are Monday and Friday. Please ensure your child has a full PE kit, including trainers/pumps. We are haing an increasing number of children having to miss out on PE as they haven't got their PE kit in school. 

It is really important that your child comes into school everyday with a named water bottle please. 

Holly Class 2024

Year 3/4 Harvest Festival Performance

Holly and Chestnut class performed their harvest production of The Little Red Hen at St Michael’s Church.

The Year 4 children were the narrators and acted out the tale while the Year 3 joined in with the singing and the actions for the catchy tunes.  

The PAIS team then led an interesting quiz involving Penelope Pineapple and questions about where in the world different fruit and vegetables come from and Rev’d David Brown promoted the meaning of harvest.  

Thank you to Rev’d David Brown and the PAIS team for hosting us at St Michael’s Church and for the parent helpers who walked with us to church.

November Spotlight

Your child will have come home with their lines to learn for our class assembly next week - please spend some time with them learning their part ready for next week - they are very excited and can't wait to perform it to the school and you next week!

Please check out the documents for the link to our song (on YouTube) and lyrics are available to download in the files found below :-)

Children in Need

We have had an action packed day of Pudsey related activities - I hope the class had fun and please see a selection of their work below. We had fun for PE looking for the Pudsey's around school and when we found them we made up an action on the spot to do as a class, this ranged from 10 squats, 10 star jumps, 10 high knees and even 10 seconds dabbing.

Class Trip

As a class we visited the City of Caves in Nottingham. The children had an action-packed day where they became geologists, palaeontologists and cave explorers. We completed a series of activities which included:

• Sorting and classifying rocks
• Looking at the imprint of fossils and shells
• Sifting sediment

With each of these activities it gave us a chance to explore rocks further and the rock cycle they go through from weathering, erosion, deposition, compaction and heating/compressing. It helped to embed our knowledge of the cycle and that it is the process by which the Earth's three main types of rock—igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary—change over time. Lots of these terms we already knew from playing Minecraft!

We ventured through the caves and found that the caves run through a lot of Nottingham city and our tour guide told us how they were used for several reasons, from homes, to hide outs (for criminals), air raid shelters and tanneries!

Home Learning:

Home learning will be uploaded each week in the 'files' section at the bottom of this page. There will be three colours to choose from. Your child will be given a colour every Thursday. The colour will be found in the margin of their home learning book. Select and complete the colour your child has been set in the home learning books, where answers only are recorded, there is no requirement to print off the home learning task. Please return by the following Tuesday.

Spellings: children will be tested on weekly words every Thursday. Please see the attachment below which has the half termly overview of the spellings to practise with your child every week. It would be beneficial to talk about the word's meaning, look at how it is spelt and choose 5 spellings from the list, write in the homework book in full sentences. This will give your child chance to practice handwriting, the spelling and how to use in a sentence in the correct context.

How can I help my child at home?

Reading: please read with your child as frequently as possible. They don't have to read their school reading books every night, it is a good idea to read a range of genres and texts as this will really help their general knowledge and as well their understanding of different text types. We have attached a recommended reading list for year 3 for your information. 

Timestables: this term, we will be focussing on learning our x3, x4 and x8 times tables, as well as consolidating our knolwedge of the x2, x5 and x10 times tables. Youtube have lots of great songs which will help your child learn these. Here are a couple of websites you can also use at home to help your child practise their times tables:

https://www.timestables.co.uk/ - you can sign your child up for a free account on this website which will keep track of their progress and their achievements. 

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/times-tables - Hit the Button is a particularly popular game on this website. 

As a school we have also launched Times Table Rock Stars! Your child should have a log in provided by school. Please use the link below to play online or download the app to your device. It is a great way for the children to engage in their timestables and even battle their teacher - I look forward to those invites :-)

https://play.ttrockstars.com/auth/school/student/196921

Spellings: I have attached the Year 3 and 4 statuory word list which you child will be expected to be able to spell by the time they finish Year 4. 

Spelling, puncutation and grammar: we have also attached a spelling, punctuation and grammar glossary of terminology for each year group. This will give you an idea of what your child is expected to already know from Years 1 and 2, and also what they will be learning about during Year 3.